IF ANY proof were needed that we have completely lost the sense of measure in this country it was provided at the 16th conference of the Pancyprian Co-ordinating Committee of Students (PSEM) that was held on Wednesday. PSEM is an organisation of teenagers – students of secondary schools – who like to play the politicians and the trade unionists and have been encouraged to do so by the communists of AKEL, in the name of democracy and human rights.
The schoolchildren are currently demanding that their right to unionise and to organise themselves into political groups at school should be formally recognised. All the political parties, apart from the progressive communists of AKEL, quite rightly, oppose this move, but the teenagers refuse to give up. They have turned this ridiculous demand into an issue of freedom of expression, which was supposedly their inalienable right.
Addressing Wednesday’s conference, President Christofias, posing as a great champion of free speech, encouraged the teenage activists to “carry on the fight till the end”. He told them: “You have every right to have a say on the issues that affect you. We waged great battles for this right to be won and you should surrender it to no-one – neither to your principals, nor to the education minister, nor to the President of the Republic. Carry on the battle for truly free student unionism.”
This is an astonishingly irresponsible attitude to take. Here was the president encouraging children not to listen to their principals, at a time when public schools are facing serious problems with lack of discipline and anti-social behaviour. A 13-, 14- or 16-year-old is very likely to misunderstand what freedom of expression actually means, taking it as licence to show disrespect for his teachers and school rules.
Unfortunately, Christofias also had the support of the Commissioner for the Protection of the Rights of the Child, who claimed that schools were obliged to discuss the demand of PSEM for the abolition of school uniforms. Failing to do so, the schools were violating the rights of the children, the Commissioner said, and she was being serious.
If there was a sense of measure, children would have been treated as children, and not as adults with rights and no responsibilities. By AKEL and Christofias’ logic the next step would be to give 13-year-olds the right to vote as well, as they are considered so mature that we would recognise their right to organise themselves into unions and have a say in how their schools are run.
And when some pancyprian union of schoolkids demands that end-of-year exams be abolished would we respect its wishes? If we do not, the children might go on strike to get their way and the President would applaud them for not giving up the fight.
